Administration proposes more fees to fund government but faces renewed opposition

Published Sunday, February 12, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush hates new taxes, that's for sure. But tell that to airline passengers, higher-income veterans and owners of freighters using the St. Lawrence Seaway. They are among those hit up for billions of dollars under his new budget plan.

The spending proposal for the budget year that begins Oct. 1 contains $3.5 billion in new user fees. Typically branded as new taxes by those who have to pay them, these fees are intended to hold down the public's cost for programs such as airline screening, medical care for veterans and military retirees, food inspection and oversight of commodities markets.

The fees would swell to $47.2 billion over five years, dunning taxpayers and industry to help pay for government services.

The largest single fee would increase the tax paid by airline passengers for security screenings from $2.50 to $5 for a one-way nonstop ticket. It would raise $1.6 billion when combined with fees on cargo carriers.

The Air Transport Association, the major airlines' trade group, opposes the higher security fees and is confident Congress will reject the proposal, said the group's president, James May.

The idea behind user fees is that those who benefit from government services should pay for them rather than everyone.

Current fees on passports, national park admissions, patents, stock transactions, federal court filings and agricultural inspections and other services are expected to raise $209 billion next year.

"It's not reasonable for all Americans to bear the entire cost of government activities from which they only receive a partial benefit," said Scott Milburn, a spokesman for the White House budget office.

"User fees help match the cost of government programs to those who benefit from them," he said.

Like some other pieces of Bush's 2007 budget, the new fees mostly are proposals rejected in the past.

Airline passengers, in other words, should not start worrying about paying $10 for every round trip. Congress ignored a comparable proposal last year after protests from the airline industry.

Why does the White House propose dead-on-arrival fees year after year?